- I was walking to class, a final that I was really nervous for actually, but I was reminiscing on only a couple days prior to my ANTH 431 class. This was my favorite class of all time, great people, amazing teacher, and insightful conversations. I was randomly thinking about a classmate ka'aha who I haven't associated much with but he was also in my ANTH 485 class. As I was thinking about this person and the tiniest of interactions we had had, he appeared beside me walking to the same building from a side of school that is not even populated. The interaction itself was normal but does it mean anything that I was thinking of this person and they happened to pop up?
- I'm just asking questions here, I don't know if it did or didn't mean anything; like did my thoughts transcend into the universe and pull this person to me? Not that I meant to in anyway, this was not a praying thought, or chanting by any means. The thoughts I were having were everyday miscellaneous day dreaming and random thoughts that just happen to pass through.
- Do the universal energies exist? Can a human manifest them? Do I use them if they are already in existence? The universal connectedness becomes more real with every novel I read, with every human I meet with, and every day-defying experience such as little as this to something larger.
December 16, 2015
- I have only realized this today but on my 14 birthday or so one of my relatives gave me a book, The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action. I'm 23 now, and I can tell you that I had no interest in books or anything remotely educational at that time; however today as I read Cultural Evolution: How Darwinian Theory Can Explain Human Culture and Synthesize the Social Sciences by Alex Mesoudi I am realizing I'm an anthropologist. Here I am, reading about Darwins' theories of natural selection and evolution, writing the last paper of my undergraduate career (An independent study for Dr. Scott on Culture in Nonhuman Species: Primate Adaptation and Evolution) and how this all applied to 14 year old me. Was I destined to become an anthropologist? I don't remember receiving any books growing up besides book shelves of Japanese comics, manga.
- In my own life, in my universe that I live in with the billions of people on this planet, I feel as though that was a small spurt of energy, a ball of fire titled 'anthropology, cultural evolution, social acquisition and behaviors' that was shot off into the universe and met me later in life. Specifically when I took my Anth 101 class and then proceeded to meet my best friend and Anthropology game-changer Mary.
- That book had no meaning to me then, 5 years ago, or yesterday. But today it now means something to me. This is an emotionally based statement, but what is the human if not made up of emotions that in return create the experiences and knowledge we have?
